The ‘L’ word

What do you call a person that tells you one thing, but knows that isn’t true? For instance, in March the President said “My proposal would bring down the cost of health care for millions — families, businesses and the federal government.” On Friday our President seemed to get a small dose of reality when he said “As a consequence of us getting 30 million additional people health care, at the margins that’s going to increase our costs—we knew that.”

If this dramatic about face was an isolated incident, perhaps one could chalk it up as a “mistake.” It isn’t isolated. In that same speech where the President admits that the health care reform will cost money he also said “We took every idea out there about how to reduce or at least slow the costs of health care over time.” Amazingly there was no meaningful tort reform allowed in the health care bill, even though in states like Texas have had great success after passing reform bills. The President refused to even consider taxing health care benefits, which economists unanimously agree would have resulted in lower costs.

The biggest whopper from Friday is this gem “So these policies of cutting taxes for the wealthiest Americans, of stripping away regulations that protect consumers, running up a record surplus to a record deficit — those policies finally culminated in the worst financial crisis we’ve had since the Great Depression.” No mention of Fannie or Freddie and the housing bubble that was government created. No mention of the skyrocketing energy prices that lit the fuse to the economic meltdown. No mention of the fact that AFTER the taxes were cut, government revenues increased substantially.

It’s obvious to all but the most ideologically driven that President Obama has no working knowledge of what drives our economy’s problems and certainly no experience with solutions that can fix those problems. What President Obama does have is an ideology and facts cannot dissuade him from those beliefs. The President’s world view makes him especially dangerous to America because he believes what he says regardless of the consequences or facts.

It is considered poor form to use the “L” word in politics. Instead of the blunt direct language used by most Americans, politicians use euphemisms like “miss spoke“, “was mistaken“, etc. Unlike politicians, Americans are more blunt. The President’s sophistry when promoting health care combined with his constant demagoguery on the economy has led many Americans to one conclusion; he lied.